ROMANESQUE
In art, the term Romanesque
art
can be used to cover all immediate
derivations of Roman architecture
in the West, from the fall of Rome
(5th century CE) until the rise ofGothic art in about 1200.
More commonly however, the word
Romanesque describes a specific
style of architecture and sculpture
that arose simultaneously in France,
Germany, Italy and Spain during the
11th century. This religious art is
characterized by a massiveness of
scale, reflecting the greater social
stability of the new Millennium.
For murals see Romanesque
Painting,
for gospel illuminations and other
forms of book painting, see:Romanesque
Illustrated Manuscripts.

The slow maturing that culminated in the
advent of monumental sculpture had taken
place throughout the 11th century in the Benedictine monasteries of France.
The reform of the Church, that attempt to purify the men of prayer and,
by freeing them from the defilement which kept them at a remove from holiness,
to fit them to fulfil their social function better, had actually begun
with the monastic institution. This enabled the latter to capture the
fervour of the faithful, attract the growing flood of pious donations,
and create suitably inspirational Christian
art to illustrate the message of the Bible.

Shrine of the Three Kings (1180-1225)
in Cologne Cathedral. Created
by Nicholas of Verdun, a leading
member of the school of Mosan
art
in the Meuse River valley, Belgium.
See also: Godefroid de Claire, who
may have been resonsible for the
Stavelot Triptych.

The first use to which the monks put the
superabundance of wealth thus acquired was to decorate the places where
they silently absorbed the word of God, where they met to sing his praises
at all hours of day and night. The rule of St Benedict required them to
pray at such length in the name of the people so as to amass the favours
of heaven for them. For it was thought that the more brilliant the liturgical
office, the more generously those favours would be granted. Moreover,
as liberated from the desires of the flesh as abstinence could make human
beings, the monks felt that they belonged to the highest degree of terrestrial
hierarchies and had come close to the realm of the angels. The church
in which they chanted in unison with the choir of seraphim seemed to them
the antechamber of Paradise. They wanted their house to reflect on earth
the perfection of the heavenly city. Furthermore, the Benedictine monastery
was itself a city like the Roman city. Like the latter, it was enclosed
in a precinct as a protection against corruption. Inside it two adjoining
buildings, the basilica and the cloister, a kind of square surrounded
by porticoes, formed a virtual replica of the ancient forum.

The sculptors' first mission was to decorate
this central space. No statues in it as yet, but at least they could decorate
the tops of columns and pilasters, using what they saw on the remains
of antique monuments as models. They were required to go further, to populate
the profusion of plant forms stemming from the Corinthian acanthus with
figures, as painters did around the initials on the parchment of lectionaries.
For it was not only a question of decorating, but also of teaching, and,
by means of such images that recalled scenes from the Old Testament and
the Gospel, and episodes from the exemplary lives of guardian saints,
of supporting the monks' meditations, of displaying before their eyes
the symbols of the vices of which they had to purge themselves. The bas-reliefs
decorating sarcophagi, the only elements of Roman sculpture left undestroyed,
supplied models. Nevertheless it is obvious that sculptural themes were
mostly borrowed from illuminated manuscripts, ivory plaques and goldsmiths'
pieces, in other words they still came from the treasuries, and these
forms, projected on to the wall, were still confined to the interior,
to the area of withdrawal encircled by the monastic closure.

Public Religious
Sculpture

Not until the very end of the 11th century
were sculptures taken out of the sanctuaries and openly exposed to the
view of the masses, because the clergy no longer feared that they would
take them for the images of ancient gods. Henceforth the facade of the
basilica was treated like a Roman arch of triumph. Sometimes sculptured
figures covered it completely, but usually they were assembled around
the portal, that key position. It was the place of transition from a depraved
world to that other world of which the monastic community gave a foreshadowing
by the harmony of its chants, the masterly arrangement of its processions,
the heady scent of incense and the shimmering lights. The portal was the
symbol of the conversion enjoined on every sinner.

The audacity that made this innovation
possible grew stronger in the richest and most prestigious houses, at
the nodal points of those widespread networks woven in the progress of
reform, of those congregations that the monasteries assembled from one
end of Christendom to the other, especially in the congregation headed
by the abbey of Cluny. Closely associated with the Church of Rome from
its foundation, Cluny had greatly increased the number of its daughter
houses in the south of France and Spain, in the highly Romanized provinces.
Then, at the height of its renown, it laid claim to the cultural heritage
of the Empire and took over the role once held by the imperial chapel.
This return to great outdoor sculpture was firstly an affirmation of power.
By half-opening the door, allowing a glimpse of the pomp of the liturgical
feast and giving a foretaste of the joys promised purified souls, monasticism
displayed its power to intercede. So decorative sculpture primarily fulfilled
what we might call a political function, such as it had assumed in Antiquity,
when it demonstrated on church portals the authority emanating from the
city.

But once it became public, sculpture also
sought to be a demonstration of orthodoxy. In opposition to the threatening
sects whose leaders, denounced as heretics, were pursued and burnt when
they persisted in rejecting the incarnation, destroying crucifixes and
claiming that man could communicate directly with God, and that ecclesiastical
intermediaries were unnecessary, the tympana, the lintels and the column
statues proclaimed first and foremost that God blessed those who erected
magnificent monuments to his glory. Showing the apostles, prophets and
Christ too in the body, they proclaimed that the Word was made flesh,
that he had lived among men.

Thus in the adornment of the monastic church,
that impregnable fortress raising the trophies of daily victories won
over the forces of evil, the aim of drawing the faithful on to the paths
of truth was already evident. Showing at Moissac the risen Christ surrounded
by the twenty-four Elders as the author of the Apocalypse had seen him
at Patmos, giving on Autun Cathedral a glimpse of the Last Judgment, meant
lifting a corner of the veil, inaugurating the apostolate by which the
good news was spread to the far corners of the world, as the great scene
exposed for the instruction of pilgrims on the tympanum at Vezelay has
demonstrated in masterly fashion for nine centuries.

At the beginning of Romanesque art, the medieval West was divided into
two large geographical zones, a southern and a northern one. The former
was characterized, during the second quarter of the 11th century, by the
spread of a sombre vaulted type of religious building. It had no sculptured
decoration, but the small regular stonework used in its construction made
its own contribution to the architectural decoration by means of small
blind arcades and mural bands. This early southern Romanesque art spread
rapidly from northern Italy, southern France and Catalonia. An early northern
Romanesque art (also known as proto-Romanesque) was characterized in the
Ottonian and Salian imperial regions by a return to the architectural
formulas of the first Christian basilicas (timber-roofed. well-lit buildings)
expressing the political desire of the Carolingian and Holy Roman Empires
for a renewal of the old Roman Empire. Essentially, Ottonian
art comprised two great phases, the first covering the second half
of the 10th century and the first quarter of the 11th until the death
of Henry II in 1024 and the extinction of the Saxon dynasty, and the second
continuing under the Salians until approximately the end of the third
quarter of the 11th century. (See also: German
Medieval Art.)

The great masterpieces of Ottonian sculpture were church fittings with
monumental aspirations, made of bronze. The technique
of casting an alloy of copper, tin and zinc in a mould, known since Antiquity,
was particularly developed in the Ottonian centres in the Rhineland and
northern Germany (Hildesheim, Augsburg, Maim, Magdeburg). In addition
to the very rapid diffusion of small objects such as crucifixes, Ottonian
Ottonian metalwork - notably bronze-founding
- became famous at Hildesheim under Bishop Bernward (993-1022), the tutor
of Otto III, and two imposing monuments have been preserved, the doors
and the triumphal column. These works stand out forcibly in buildings
characterized by the purity of their forms and architectural bareness.
They provide brilliant testimony to the antique and Carolingian vision
that presided over Ottonian artistic creation close to the centres of
power. They are the jewels of the Hildesheim bronze workshops which also
produced and exported a number of small-scale works (candlesticks, chandeliers,
crucifixes).

The technical skill represented by the founding of each of the leaves
of the Hildesheim door in one piece is only equalled by the plastic effort
employed to animate a flat surface with figures in high relief
sculpture. The scenes from the Old and New Testaments, depicted in
cycles on separate registers, show a combination of the static force of
antique models and the movement inherited from Carolingian illuminations.
This pictorial summary of the Christian doctrine standing at the very
entrance to the church had its counterpart in the interior in other fittings
of bronze and gold, as well as in the painted decorations. The bronze
column, luckily still there today, is a major monument of Western art
because it reflects the political and religious aspirations of the circles
of power. This triumphal monument, 12.5 feet high with a diameter of 23
inches, erected to the glory of Christ, is modelled on the Roman triumphal
columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. Trajan's exploits are matched here
by events from the public life of Christ; his victories over death and
evil correspond to the emperor's victories over the barbarians. The underlying
imperial ideology is reflected in one of the most beautiful illustrations
of art in the service of a power which the quality of the style only enhances.

Beside these prodigious works of medieval
art, architectural sculpture played a minor role in the Ottonian realm.
The Carolingian column capital derived from the classical Corinthian model
(Essen, Paderborn) was almost entirely abandoned, and capitals ornamented
with figures or masks are very rare (Gernrode, Zyfflich). The Ottonian
capital particularly is cubic in shape; the basket is a cube whose lower
corners are rounded. This structure, very simple to rough-hew, which provides
four smooth bare faces was probably intended to receive the addition of
painted decoration in certain cases.

The Development
of Romanesque Sculpture

The architectural decoration of religious
buildings in the second half of the 10th century was usually very simple.
It consisted of decorated panels, moulded imposts and a few reused capitals
from immediately preceding periods. [Note: the term "capital"
refers to the distinct, typically wider section at the top of a pillar
or column.] The large-size capital was very rare insofar as the large
buildings used rectangular pillars as an element of separation between
nave and side aisles. Only small churches or crypts used columns needing
a carved capital. Among the examples of this period which extend and continue
the last capitals of Late Antiquity we find the pre-Romanesque capitals
of Brescia and Capua in Italy, (See also Romanesque
Painting in Italy) and the Mozarabic formulas of San Cebrian de Mazote
(Valladolid) in the Iberian peninsula.

The first regional experiments in carving capitals represent one of the
essential aspects of the rise of monumental Romanesque sculpture during
the first half of the 11th century. They are part of the working out of
the different features of early Romanesque architecture. These regional
experiments are apparently unconnected but they testify to a common concern
destined to culminate in Romanesque art proper. In northern Italy, early
Romanesque, with little ornamentation, welcomed capitals in crypts and
ambulatories, as in San Stefano at Verona. During the first half of the
11th century (around 1038 at Caorle), a group of capitals characterized
by faithful and direct imitation of the antique Corinthian model appeared
in basilicas at the head of the Adriatic, between Venice (San Nicole)
di Lido) and Trieste (San Giusto). The acanthus leaves are handled slackly
and the volutes curve back under the corners and under the dado of each
face of the basket. At Aquileia, around 1020-1030, under the patriarchate
of Poppo, the workshop was inspired by an antique capital in carving all
the capitals in the basilica and its members were so proud of the result
that they had no hesitation about placing and exhibiting the original
in a privileged location, at the crossing of the transept. The two Corinthian
capitals re-employed at Romainmotier (Switzerland) in the second quarter
of the 11th century testify to a similar dependence on antique sculpture.
At Aquileia the fidelity of the copy does not conceal what constitutes
the essential aesthetic transformation of the new Romanesque capital as
compared with the antique model: the evolution of the acanthus leaf to
the palmette.

At about the same time, in the south of France and Catalonia, there was
a search for the technical means to solve the problem of adapting the
surface motif used on panels (interlacings, palmettes and rosettes) to
the roughhewn surfaces of the capital. From the end of the first third
of the 11th century at Le Puy, Tournus and Sant Pere de Roda there appeared
a series of capitals based on the Corinthian scheme which show the pre-Romanesque
shallow relief giving way to chamfering and deep grooving. This tendency
continues in the ambulatory of Tournus, at Issoudun, and then before the
end of the century in the cathedral and Saint-Allyre at Clermont-Ferrand.
A second group of capitals with squaring and proportions closer to cubic
forms has baskets completely covered with interlacings blossoming into
palmettes and foliage: Sant Perl' de Roda, Sainte-Foy at Conques and Aurillac.
Links with pre-Romanesque relief work appear more clearly in the sculptured
capitals with animal and plant themes in shallow relief in the church
of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou in Conflent, reliably dated to the early 11th
century.

The transition from ornamental to figurative
in the decoration of the capital researched by Henri Focillon and the
role of the figure intended to emphasize and lighten its function are
only two aspects of the amazing wealth of experiments which helped to
form the style peculiar to Romanesque plastic
art and give it its architectural character during the 11th century.
In northern France, where the forms of cubic capitals can be compared
with those of the Ottonian world, the capitals of Vignory, ornamented
with geometric, plant and animal motifs in a half-flat technique, testify
to concerns similar to those observed in the south of France. At Saint-Remi
of Reims some stucco capitals with a varied repertory of foliage, animals
and figures are preserved. In Normandy, the two series of capitals at
Bernay, the older of which may go back to 1020-1040, relate both to Burgundy
and the Loire region; these contacts have been partly explained by the
activities of a celebrated prelate, William of Volpiano, summoned to Burgundy
by the Duke of Normandy at the very beginning of the 11th century. Shortly
after the mid-century, the duchy looked towards England, notably after
the conquests of William the Bastard (later the Conqueror) in 1066. The
best evidence of this is at Jumieges, Bayeux (home of the famous Bayeux
Tapestry), Thaon, Rouen and, in the third quarter of the century,
the geometrized decoration of the basilica of the Trinity and the chapel
of Sainte-Croix at Caen.

Subsequently Normandy adopted highly geometrized and schematic abstract
motifs, making them one of the characteristics of a Romanesque style whose
contribution to Western art was essentially architectural. Interregional
connections were also established between Burgundy and the region of the
Loire and the Rhone valley. From the early 11th century, Burgundy possessed
monuments of the first importance: Cluny, Romainmotier, Saint-Philibert
of Tournus, Saint-Benigne of Dijon. The last-named abbey church, which
played such a large part in the flowering of the Romanesque apse during
the first two decades of the century, under William of Volpiano, has in
the present-day crypt some magnificent capitals decorated with complicated
monsters accompanying corner masks and figures; their innovative nature
makes them one of the most striking experiments as regards style. In Paris,
the capitals from Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the Musee de Cluny contrast
with these series by the monumentality of the Christ in Majesty represented
on them and add fresh fuel to the controversy over the chronology of these
works. At the centre of Capetian power, the capitals of the cathedral
of Sainte-Croix at Orleans and those in the crypt of Saint-Aignan pose
both the problem of dating the birth of Romanesque sculpture in the valley
of the Loire and that of tracing the sources of inspiration of these varied
experiments.

The Tower Porch of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire

At the beginning of Romanesque art, the Loire basin was a geographical
zone of intense artistic activity. Helgaud, the monk of Fleury, has left
handsome witness to the wealth of foundations by Robert the Pious at Orleans,
which include for example the construction at Saint-Aignan of Orleans
before 1029 of a chevet modelled on that of Clermont Cathedral perhaps
with an ambulatory and radiating chapels. An ambulatory may also have
existed in the basilica (dedicated in 1014) of Saint-Martin of Tours (unless
it belonged entirely to the apse built after the fire of 1090). The dating
of this church at Tours has been the subject of scholarly polemics for
more than a hundred years, like those which surround the chronology of
the best preserved monument in the region: the tower-porch of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire.

This abbey (Saint-Benoit-de-Fleury), standing on the banks of the Loire,
has a very old history, since its foundation goes back to 651. Reformed
between 930 and 943 by Odo of Cluny, the abbey of Fleury became one of
the main intellectual centres in the West under the direction of Abbo
(988-1004) and Gauzlin (1004-1030). A centre of studies, with a large
library and a famous scriptorium, the abbey, during the 11th century,
was one of the repositories of the antique culture in which the medieval
monastic culture was forged. Archeological excavations have partially
disclosed the flat chevet and the transept of the monastery church built
during the last quarter of the 9th century, after the Norman invasions.
This edifice probably already possessed a western tower. A fierce fire
devastated the abbey in 1020 under the abbacy of Gauzlin, who decided
on the construction of a tower at the west end. The chevet of the present
church was only built by Abbot William (1067-1080), and consecrated in
1107. The nave in its turn was not rebuilt until the 12th century. As
for the tower-porch with its exceptional wealth of sculpture, when does
it date from? From the years following the fire and thus from the abbacy
of Gauzlin? Was there a direct relation between the fire and the reconstruction
of the tower? How many years after the actual fire was this reconstruction?
Was it one of the works of Abbot William?

The tower-porch of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire,
built on an almost square plan, has a ground floor and one upper storey
in its existing state. Each of its external facades is pierced by three
openings on both levels. To the east, the central door, framed by two
niches, is flanked by the doors to spiral staircases which allow access
to the upper part. Each level is subdivided into nine bays with an almost
square plan by large piers confined by semi-columns, although the shapes
vary according to their position and storey. They support grained vaults,
except in the three bays which precede the three minor apses hollowed
out of the thickness of the east wall of the upper storey.

This monument, whose architecture already
marks it out as Romanesque, is exceptional for the series of capitals
decorating it. On the ground floor, the acanthus reigns on large capitals
reflecting the antique culture of the master who engraved his name (Unbertus
me fecit) on onc of the most conspicuous capitals. Thc Romanesque synthesis
he effected was nurtured by certain drawings, a few sheets of which have
been discovered in Rome and Paris, by observation of the antique and the
desire to ereate new schemata with the help of the palmette, for example.
In a second group of capitals the acanthus disappears and the style is
dryer and more linear. The human figure which invades the capitals on
the upper floor already appears on the ground floor in the representations
of the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Flight into Egypt.

The relations between the ground-floor capitals of the porch of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire
and those of Meobecq and comparisons with the capitals of disputed date
in Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers, Saint-Martin of Tours and Maillezais pose
interesting methodological problems concerning the chronology of early
Romanesque sculpture in France. How should we situate the model and its
copies? Can mentions of the construction work be used to date the completion
of the sculptures? As regards style, the hand of one member of Unbertus
workshop has been detected at Meobecq (Indre), a monument dedicated in
1048; but to which of the successive buildings at Meobecq does the dedication
refer? Supporters of an early date think that the Saint-Benoit capitals
belong to the worksite opened around 1026: hence their importance for
the origins of Romanesque sculpture. But is it conceivable that Unbertus's
experiments with the Corinthian scheme and the appearance of the historiated
capitals at Saint-Benoit are more than half a century earlier than the
first Corinthian capitals of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse or those of about
1100 at Vezelay? That is unacceptable to defenders of an evolutionist
theory of Romanesque sculpture for whom the Romanesque style once formed
followed a regular course.

Note: For details of Romanesque sculptors
from the Middle Ages, see: Medieval
Artists.

Abbey Church of Cluny

One of the major events in the history of the Middle Ages was the foundation
of Cluny in 910 by William III of Aquitaine. A great centre of reform
in the observance of the Old Benedictine Rule, Cluny, under the direction
of men of exceptional ability such as Mayeul and Odilo, rapidly created
an unparalleled network of monastic daughter houses. Among the most prestigious
buildings of the late 10th century figures the abbey church of Cluny II
(960-981), which had a chevet with staggered apses, a comparatively narrow
transept, a nave with side aisles and a galilee - a plan used by many
11th-century churches. As it soon proved too small, and ill-adapted to
the economic expansion of the mother house of the Cluniac order, a new
church was founded in 1088; although partially consecrated by Pope Urban
II in 1095, construction continued until the solemn consecration of 1130.
It was an enormous building, whose design is reflected in many smaller
churches, primarily in Burgundy (Paray-le-Monial, La Charite-sur-Loire,
Autun). It had five aisles preceded by a galilee and two facade towers,
a double transept and an apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. The
vaults rose to a very great height above three storeys. The unfortunate
demolition of this building between 1798 and 1823 has deprived us of a
unique monument known only by archeological researches and a few surviving
elements.

This abbey church which all Christianity envied was decorated with sculptures,
paintings and mosaic art; an echo of them
is found in the great Burgundian complexes such as Vezelay for sculpture
and Berze-la-Ville for painting. (See Romanesque
Painting in France.) The west front, from which numerous remains of
richly polychromed sculpture have been rediscovered, has been restored
on a hypothetical basis by the American archeologist K.J. Conant; its
tympanum was decorated with a theophany in the spirit of the one formerly
on the tympanum of the Monte Cassino basilica, and still to be seen on
several Burgundian churches (Charlieu, Perrecy-les-Forges). The unrivalled
quality of the Cluny sculpture, its beauty and its role in the subsequent
development of medieval sculpture, can be grasped from rediscovered fragments
of the choir screen and eight surviving capitals from columns in the ambulatory
of the great basilica. The importance of the foliage sculpture is well
known, not only on the capital entirely decorated with leafwork derived
very closely from the antique Corinthian, but also on the other capitals.
They are surprising for the absence of an architectural frame and for
the way in which the figures fit into the foliage of the Corinthian squaring.
Figures instead of palmettes appear at the corners of the baskets, whereas
elsewhere they occupy the centre of a single face, magnified by mandorlas.
A coherent iconographic program centred on a moral and cosmological symbolism
incorporates the Virtues, the tones of the Gegorian music scale, the Seasons
and the Rivers of Paradise. It must have fitted into the larger ensemble
of paintings and sculptures, to judge by two extant engaged capitals representing
thc Sacrifice of Abraham and Adam and Eve. The mastery of the nude, the
forceful modelling, the movement of the drapery folds, and the restless
linework reminiscent of illuminations, as well as the majestic handling
of the Corinthian scheme, are noteworthy features of these masterworks
which the monks of Cluny raised to the summit of Western art, shortly
before 1120 (possibly even about 1110). (For an historical survey of nudity
in medieval painting and sculpture, see: Female
Nudes in Art History (Top 20), and also please see Male
Nudes in Art History (Top 10).)

Interpretation/
Meaning of Romanesque Sculptural Iconography

The Romanesque church contained sculptured
picture cycles on capitals either facing and answering each other or arranged
in series in particular parts of the building, such as the crypt (cycle
of St Benedict in Saint-Denis) and especially the choir enclosure and
ambulatory, as in the churches of Auvergne: Issoire (Passion of Christ),
Mozat (Resurrection) and Saint-Nectaire. This iconography hidden at the
back of the sacred space invites us to consider each capital in relation
to the nearby wall paintings and to its position in the building. Essentially
it consists of images of the Passion, the Salvation, the Resurrection,
the Last Judgment, lives of the Saints, struggles between the Virtues
and Vices, and typological correspondences between the Old and New Testaments.
Beside these decorations reserved in principle for those at prayer, the
church displayed outside, especially at the entrance. on the facade, portal
and tympanum, large sculpted frescoes intended to offer the passer-by
both a synthesis of Christian doctrine and the Church's conception of
the world order: this was the great iconographic triumph of the Romanesque
period.

The facade design is centred on the tympanum which rests on a lintel and
concentrates the spectator's attention by its semicircular form. Its iconography
always fits in directly with that of the portal and in a broader sense
with the facade as a whole. The latter is made up of different architectural
elements, each of which has a place and plays a specific role in the structure
of the whole. With its portals, round windows, rose window, high windows,
gable and towers, the facade is a screen which lends itself admirably
to the display of a carved or painted decoration which the ecclesiastical
and civil powers utilized with dexterity.

The meaning of the images is nearly always
spelled out by inscriptions which sometimes identify specific elements,
but more usually provide the interpretative key to the whole work, like
the formula surrounding the mandorla containing Christ in Majesty accompanied
by the Terramorph on the north tympanum of the 12th-century church of
San Miguel d'Estella in Navarre: "This present image that you see
is neither God nor man, but he is God and man whom this sacred image figures."

The great Romanesque tympana bear witness to a remarkable architectonic
calculation, to careful iconographic planning and uncommon technical skill;
and they show that large sums of money were available to buy the materials
and pay the artists. The latter sculptors or masters of works, were a
force to be reckoned with from the moment when they dared to sign their
work, as at Autun beneath the feet of Christ in Majesty, in the midst
of religious inscriptions, using the somewhat presumptuous formula Gislebertus
hoc fecit. The close tie between iconographic conception and artistic
execution is clearly emphasized in the phrase inscribed on the 12th-century
tympanum of the church of Autry-Issards (Bourbonnais) accompanying the
divine glory carried by angels: "God made everything. Man makes,
has remade everything. Natalis made me." It should, of course, be
added that the execution of the great Romanesque tympana was a team undertaking.
At Conques, as at Autun and elsewhere, the tympanum is made up of juxtaposed
blocks of stone carved before they were put in place. Technical observation
of the bonding shows how complicated the sculptors' researches were before
completion of the definitive formula for putting the stones in place.
The main problem was to ensure the coincidence, which was not always sought
for (Autun), of the stone-cutting with the cutting up of the iconography
(Conques, Vezelay).

By its monumentality, the sculpture of
the Romanesque tympanum completed by that on the archivolts sometimes
forms the only decoration of the whole facade (Conques). At other times,
the tympanum is integrated with the facade, as in the little chapel of
Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe at Le Puy where the lobes surrounding the tympanum
are ornamented with an Adoration of the Lamb by the Elders of the Apocalypse,
while on the upper part of the facade there is a frieze of figures, situated
on either side of the Divine Majesty, which cannot be left out of a global
interpretation. But the tympanum is first of all an integral part of the
portal and its meaning has to be clarified by that of the sculptures on
the trumeau and the embrasures, as well as those on other portals of the
facade, as at Vezelay, for example. The images are integrated into a liturgical
context that we forget only too often when interpreting them, sometimes
for lack of adequate docmentation. Thus the lintel fragment from the portal
of the north transept of Saint-Lazare at Autun which represents the enigmatic
figure of a reclining Eve picking the apple with her left hand, resting
her head on her right hand, and with foliage placed in the centre of the
relief modestly hiding her gender, has been eXplained in different ways.
Her posture had suggested that the artist was obeying a formal imperative,
imposed by the dimensions of the lintel or by the iconographic intention
to show Eve leaning towards Adam and whispering in his ear the idea of
the sin. In reality, Adam, like Eve, was originally also depicted reclining
on the lintel, because, condemned by God, they had been punished for the
Original Sin and were likened to the demoniacal serpent. A risen Lazarus
was represented standing upright on the tympanum, emphasizing the iconographic
intent by a strong formal contrast. But Eve's reclining position must
also be connected with the liturgy for Ash Wednesday, when sinners entered
the basilica of Autun through this portal prostrate, and did not stand
erect until they had been pardoned by the sacrament of penance. (The faithful
also passed beneath the coffin of St Lazarus in his mausoleum at Autun
on their knees or stooping). If the sacramental liturgy was particularly
suited to a sculptural interpretation at the entrance to the church, it
found numerous iconographical allusions on Romanesque tympana. The exhortation
to public repentance took place between Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday,
and often throughout Lent, in front of the church door, in the porch or
the atrium, places occupied by the penitents until the Easter remission
of sins, The tympanum of the west portal of Jaca Cathedral, which has
already been mentioned, may also be interpreted in this way, Thus we are
entitled to extend this approach to Romanesque tympana in a more general
way to the whole iconographic environment of the Original Sin, to the
scenes of healing and resurrection which often constitute the essential
part of the iconography of the capitals flanking the portal. Penitence
leading to the Eucharist summarizes the meaning of the portal giving access
to the church when it is passed through by the penitent who prays, in
Daniel's words: "I have sinned, I have committed iniquity, I have
done wickedly, have pity on me, Lord,"

The illustration of Good and Evil, the
sculptured presentation of the social order, of the models which had to
be followed to be a good Christian, of the prizes reserved for the just
and the punishment awaiting those who strayed from the right path, were
clearly and inexorably displayed on the tympana of the Last Judgment.
At Conques and Autun, the Divine Majesty sits in Paradise welcoming the
chosen with one hand and rejecting the damned without appeal with the
other. At Antun, the inscription engraved on the mandorla of Christ clearly
stresses his role as judge. At Conques, another inscription warns: "0
sinners, if you do not change your lives, know that a harsh judgment awaits
you." When the angels announce the Resurrection and the Last judgment,
the dead leave their graves to stand before the supreme judge, Michael
weighs the souls and presides over the general organization of thc tympanum
into two zones: the chosen on the right, the damned on the left. The contrast
is striking.

On the side of the chosen, calm, happiness, order and rhythm are opposed
to the disorder, agitation, ugliness and horror prevailing on the side
of the damned. At Conques, the symmetry between Abraham welcoming the
chosen to his bosom and Satan sitting in Hell accentuates thc contrasts.
A procession presided over by the Virgin and St Peter includes those whose
task it is, in 12th-century society, to preserve the faith and the feudal
order, the kings, bishops, abbots and monks, while, following the model
of St Foy, pilgrims and Christians in general are awaited in paradise
in glory and perpetual peace. Among the damned, languishing in despair,
torments and thc horror of deformity and monstrosity, the sins of Christian
society, lust, lying, adultery, avarice and pride, are punished with tortures,
but so are the sins which harm the smooth running of the feudal society
represented here by the counterfeiter and the bad soldier.

Stylistically, the Autun sculptor has found
the best way to accentuate the contrasts in the plastic rendering. The
scene of souls being weighed is exemplary in this respect. The angel gently
bears the dish of the chosen from which the innocent souls already rise
in the beatitude of contemplation and have no difficulty in making the
scales weigh down on their side, in spite of the desperate efforts of
the infernal monster, in whose skeleton-like rendering the artist has
given of his best. The inclusion of the group in the general iconography
of the Salvation is emphasized at Conques by the appearance, below Christ,
of the Cross and the instruments of the Passion, a reminder of the Redemption
and Christ's victory over death and sin, a victory which is expressed
here, as in antique imperial iconography, by the exhibition of the trophies
and the imtruments of this victory.

The iconography of the Last Judgment as the last stage in the work of
Redemption can be connected with the iconographics more directly associated
with the work of Salvation, and so once again with the images which accentuate
the penitential role of the tympana. A fine example is the tympanum of
thc Descent from the Cross on the Portal of Forgiveness of San Isidoro
at Leon. Between the last stages of this work of Redemption and the coming
of Christ for the Last Judgment come other theophanic visions illustrated
on tympana, such as the Ascension and the Transfiguration. At La Charite-sur-Loire,
an important Cluniac priory, two tympana are decorated (about 1135), one
with the Epiphany, the Presentation in the Temple and the Transfiguration,
while the other represents, for the first time in Romanesque art, the
welcome of the Virgin Mary by her son in the heavenly Jerusalem (Assumption).
While the illustration of the Transfiguration can be related to the introduction
of the feast of the Transfiguration to the Order of Cluny by Peter the
Venerable, it is particularly close to the Ascension of Christ on the
formal level. The Assumption of the Virgin, which is attributable to the
Venerable's belief in the corporal assumption of Mary, should also be
related to the fact that the patronal feast was celebrated at La Charite
on the day of the Assumption.

Henceforth the presence of the Virgin forms
one of the essential concepts of Romanesque visionary iconography. We
have found her presiding over the procession of the chosen on the tympana
of the Last Judgment, and she also appears about 1140-1150 on the tympanum
of the cathedral of Saint-Etienne at Cahors where, surrounded by the apostles,
she watches the Ascension of Christ standing in a mandorla (a theme more
frequently portrayed afterwards: Lucca Cathedral). The originality of
the Cahors tympanum lies in the representation of episodes from the martyrdom
of Stephen, the church's patron saint, insofar as he had been present
at the vision of the Trinitary God.

At Vezelay, after 1135, the great central tympanum evokes the Ascension,
the Second Coming, the Sending of the Holy Spirit, and the Mission of
the Apostles in the setting of a large triumphal theophany. Synthesized
images and cyclical representations are sometimes associated in the iconography
of the great Romanesque tympana. At Neuilly-en-Donjon for example, juxtaposition
of images and coherence of interpretation are particularly explicit. The
Virgin, who never won access to the tympanum on her own until the Gothic
period, here finds herself in a privileged position thanks to the episode
of the Epiphany, which, however, is a direct reference to the homage of
the nations to Christ (as on many Romanesque tympana: the Door of the
Goldsmiths at Compostela, Notre-Dame-du-Port at Clermont, Pompierre, Pontfroide,
Beaucaire Saint-Gilles-du-Gard). At Neuilly, the figures walk on the backs
of two impressive beasts occupying the lower zone of the tympanum. The
angels sounding the trumpet recall the resurrection of the dead. The lintel
is occupied by the representation of the Original Sin which emphasizes
another basic idea of this complicated iconography, the opposition Mary/Eve,
and by the depiction of the meal in Simon's house, through which pierces
another penitential image, that of Mary Magdalene, whose penitence is
generally considered as having made amends for Eve's fault. She appears
here above the entrance door of a church which is dedicated to her, as
at Vezelay.

The visionary iconography of the great Romanesque tympana took its inspiration
from the textual sources. the Old and New Testaments, with a preference
for the apocalyptic text of St John and the vision of St Matthew (XXIV-XXV).
The west portal of Anzy-lc-Duc (Saone-et-Loire), executed by two sculptors'
workshops, including one from Charlieu, shows the simple handling of the
various sources, since it presents on the tympanum a Christ in the act
of blessing in a mandorla borne by two angels appearing on the firmament,
on the lintel, the twelve apostles of the Ascension standing, presided
over by the Virgin, and on the archivolt, the Elders of the Apocalypse.
More simply still, a number of Romanesque tympana represent only the Majestas
Domini between the evangelist symbols or in a mandorla carried by angels,
as we have seen at Cluny. At Moradillo de Sedano (Burgos), an image of
the Majesty in the mandorla is surrounded by the evangelist symbols, carried
by angels. The twenty-four Elders occupy the first arch moulding while
the apostles Peter and Paul, who usually stand on either side of the door,
are here incorporated into the tympanum. So there is a wide variety of
formulas for showing the faithful the great synthetic visions in which
the theophany sometimes merges with the image of the Last Judgment.

Among the great theophanies, the vision of the Apocalypse is one of the
most valued by Romanesque patrons. The most spectacular example is provided,
about 1130-1135, by the Moissac tympanum which stands at the back of a
porch whose lateral registers, backed against two buttresses, are also
sculptured and, since the early 19th century, exposed to superficial weathering
which is the object of technical investigations today. On it Christ is
sitting on a throne surrounded by the four Living (turned into evangelist
symbols by the presence of books) and two angels. The twenty-four Elders,
seated and crowned, appear on three registers, their heads turned towards
the Apparition. Tbe synthesis corresponds closely to the textual model,
because even such a detail as the sea of glass is represented. Many interpretations
have been put forward to explain the deeper meaning behind this apparently
simple vision. Emile Mille, for example, saw it as the transcription into
stone of an illumination of the type of that on folios 121-122 of the
Saint-Sever Apocalypse. But the Moissac tympanum is a distinctly Romanesque
work, a synthetic and triumphant vision in which the seraphim, strangers
to the Apocalyptic vision, establish a noteworthy bond with the non-apocalyptic
theoophanic visions. If we take into consideration the sculptures carved
on the side walls of the porch, the meaning of the Christ on the tympanum
is slightly modified because they include a summary of the story of the
Salvation, from the Incarnation to the promise of the Last Judgment.

In a less thorough way, certain Romanesque tympana reproduce concrete
passages from St John's visionary text. The one at La Lande-de-Fronsac
represents the moment when John in his preparatory vision, ready to transmit
his message to the seven churches of Asia, turns round and sees the Son
of Man with the sword, the seven candlesticks and the seven stars. But
here again the presence of the Majesty standing in the centre of the tympanum
refers more broadly to the Romanesque Majesties already mentioned.

Too often considered as directly dependent on the art of the Moissac tympanum,
the portal of Beaulieu (Correze) illustrates with especial brilliance
the vision of the apparition of Christ at the end of time according to
St Matthew (XXIV-XXV). The triumphal sense of this image, which has even
been compared to representations of the victorious emperor and at which
the prophet Daniel is present among a multitude of witnesses, is enhanced
by the representation of the cross adorned with carved precious stones
and carried by angels. It is the trophy we referred to when describing
the tympanum of Conques. Here Christ also appears victorious over all
the animals displayed on the double lintel. The three temptations are
represented on one of the engaged piers of the porch, the story of Daniel
on the other. Note the importance of the association of the vision of
Matthew with Daniel and of the appearance of the cross-trophy which also
refers to the cross-sign which will shine in the sky to announce the resurrection
of the dead and so by implication the Last Judgment; the theme at Beaulieu
is not however the Last Judgment, but the revelation of Christ's second
coming. How should we situate this triumphal image in relation to the
art of the Master of Moissac? It is a question much discussed among art
historians, especially since Emile Mille saw in the Beaulieu tympanum
a model for the one at Saint-Denis. This question being set aside, as
well as the chronological anomalies that such an assertion implied, a
date shortly before the mid-12th century seems more probable. It is also
suitable for the sculptured facade of Souillac which must have had a similar
porch: an illustration of the miracle of Theophilus occupied the inner
face of one of the side walls of the porch.

The Triumphal Facade

Shortly after 1100, stimulated by the rediscovery of Antiquity. Romanesque
sculpture arose in north-western Spain, at Toulouse and in northern Italy.
At Santiago de Compostela and San Salvador de Leyre in Navarre, the search
for monumentality is expressed by the proliferation of decoration over
the whole surface of the church facade. The vertical series of prophets
under arches which appear at Modena in the work site of Wiligelmo are
another response to this quest. Throughout the 12th century. Romanesque
sculptors pursue this conquest of the facade destined to become a great
display of monumental sculpture in different forms. A particularly striking
example, in spite of the many restorations it has undergone since the
Middle Ages, is the facade of Angouleme Cathedral which reproduces an
eschatological vision distributed over the whole front. The decoration
is no longer concentrated solely on the tympanum; it spreads out and develops
into a complex composition made of particular images subject to the overall
meaning. The idea of translating a monumental decoration on to a facade
is not strictly speaking a Romanesque innovation, because monuments such
as Old St Peter's, Rome, and the basilica of Porec (Parenzo) had already
shown the way by means of pictorial techniques. Romanesque artists looked
back to Antiquity, to the formulas of triumphal arches and town gates,
to find monumental models and solemnify the entrance to the heavenly Jerusalem,
the holy town that is the church.

Protecting the entrance symbolically, the
porch may adopt the form of a triumphal arch as at Civita Castellana or
that of a ciborium resting on columns as at Modena, Cremona, Piacenza
and San Zeno in Verona. In this case, we often find a pair of lions couchant
bearing the columns which support the edifice. These wild beasts, as impressive
as those which appear to Charlemagne in a dream in the Chanson de Roland,
are generally represented holding a quarry between their paws, a human
form, a ram, deer or some other animal. Bearers of the monument since
they are sometimes replaced by genuine atlantes (Piacenza), the lions
pinned to the ground by the columns, guard the entrance to the building
according to a very old tradition (Salerno Cathedral) which medieval symbolism
modifies through the text of the Bestiaries. From the early 12th century,
the porches of northern Italy may have answered to a political desire
to imitate the Christian monuments of papal Rome; at the same time they
served as the focal point of religious, judicial or simply civic ceremonies.

Like the lions, each element of the porch,
portal and facade may be studied individually, not forgetting for all
that the general impact of an iconography with which the scenes on the
church doors were also integrated in the Middle Ages. The antiquizing
trend, which may also be underscored by the arrangement of decorations
in superposed reliefs, is always more or less present on the formal level.
The Romanesque sculptor made progress in his craft through the study of
antique sculpture. Antiquity sometimes supplied pieces to be reused directly,
for example the Gallo-Roman lintel ornamented with a suevetaurilia from
Beaujeu (Musee de Lyon) which also seems to have inspired the Romanesque
lintel of Charlieu. There are a great many examples of this inspiration,
such as the frieze on the facade of Nimes Cathedral, for which the sculptors
sought models in antique sarcophagi. Observation of Antiquity and Romanesque
visionary iconography coalesce on the west portal of Saint-Trophime of
Arles, which, set against the facade of the church, combines the theme
of the apocalyptic vision with that of the Last Judgment; its architectural
structure gives great prominence to the architraves and frieze, as also
to the main colonnade which serves as a frame for the large statues. The
portal of Saint-Trophime of Arles comes at the end of Romanesque development
around 1190. On it we can observe the course followed by the sculptors
in their search for a monumental rendering of the triumphal facade.

Essentially, the flowering of the sculptured triumphal facade occurred
rather late in Romanesque art, after the middle of the 12th century, when
the iconographical and formal novelties of Gothic art had already proved
themselves on cathedral facades in northern France. As we shall see later,
one of the main contributions of the Gothic facade was the emergence of
the column statue. The degree to which Romanesque art of the second half
of the 12th century was susceptible to infiltration by Gothic innovations
is the subject of constant research. The column statues on the portal
of Santa Maria la Real de Sanguesa, for example, have been thought to
be inspired by the sculpture of Chartres, either directly, or through
the intermediary of Burgundy, because of their elongated proportions and
the verticality of the narrow, pleated drapery folds. The reality is more
complex and the differences outweigh the similarities. The large statues
which adorn the splays of the portal at Ripoll in Catalonia had also been
linked with Saint-Denis and Chartres, within the framework of the general
theory of the radiation of French art.

It is true that at Ripoll we are already far from the Moissac reliefs
or again from those on the pillars of Sts Peter and Paul at Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa.
The Ripoll statues are no longer bas-reliefs, but genuine works in the
round, which replace the column up to the height of the figures' shoulders.
The latter, although tending to replace the column, are not load-bearing
elements; they have the essentially iconographic role of a disengaged
statue. The Ripoll apostles seem as if they were frozen in the splays
of the portal. This domination of representation over function is even
more prominent at Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in a diversity which testifies
to the thematic and stylistic issues with which Romanesque sculptors were
confronted in the elaboration of the great facades.

A richly sculptured triumphal entrance, set against the facade of the
11th-century church, was conceived shortly after the middle of the 12th
century at the celebrated abbey of Santa Maria de Ripoll in Catalonia.
The facade is formed of juxtaposed blocks, without mortar. The very sandy
material used contains calcareous cement, absorbs water and is very sensitive
to the corrosive action of the air, the reason for the serious conservation
problems from which the reliefs suffer. The portal, without tympanum,
which has the figures of Peter and Paul and episodes from their lives
in its splays, also houses the stories of Cain and Abel, Jonah, and Daniel,
as well as personifications of the months of the year depicted on the
jambs of the entrance proper. A vast composition arranged in storeyed
friezes is presented on the great rectangular facade. At the summit God
in Majesty sits on a throne, blessing the faithful and presenting the
book, surrounded by four angels and two of the evangelist symbols, the
other two being located on the lower storey. The twenty-four Elders of
the Apocalypse are arranged standing upright in the upper frieze, carrying
cups and cithers. They dominate the next register which is decorated with
twenty-four of the blessed, among them apostles and prophets, praising
the Lord. The fourth and fifth friezes present scenes taken from the cycle
of Exodus and the Book of the Kings. The lower levels are occupied on
the left by David and his musicians and on the right by Christ accompanied
by four personages, including an ecclesiastic, surmounting representations
of animals, a centaur, a horseman and, in very high relief on either side
of the portal, a lion grasping an animal in its claws. The base is also
embellished with other historiated and animal scenes, while the lateral
returns of the facade complete the iconography of the whole. (See also
Romanesque Painting
in Spain.)

The triumphal meaning of the Ripoll portal is directly emphasized by the
form and composition of the architecture of the sculptured facade. In
their deliberate imitation of an antique triumphal arch, the builders
have shown a profound knowledge of this type of monument, enabling them
to organize the complex on two superposed levels underscored by the tiered
arrangement of the corner columns and crowned by a continuous frieze.
Comparison with the decoration of the Carolingian reliquary in the form
of a triumphal arch offered by Eginhard to the abbey of St Servatius at
Maastricht points up the triumphal symbolism, for in both cases the upper
register is occupied by an image of the triumph of Christ surmounting
the figurations of historical persons who have announced, prepared or
contributed to the fulfilment on earth of the kingdom of Christ. What
we have is a Christian version of Roman programs for the glorification
of the emperor.

The general symbolism of the Romanesque facade is also expressed on the
formal level by a progression towards the summit of the axis of the door.
The image of Christ overhangs the composition, while the eyes of the figures
on the upper register converge on him and the whole facade is composed
as a sort of momumental triangle, with the Almighty at the top. Some scholars
have even seen in it the complete reproduction of what must have been
the painted decor of many Romanesque buildings, the upper part corresponding
to the decor of the flattened apsidal dome and the middle registers to
that of the walls in the nave. Indeed, in Italian apses, historical personages
do accompany the image of the theophany. The Ripoll facade, whose prodigious
iconography is open to every possible exegesis, also stresses a verticality
which in some ways recalls another of the great themes of Romanesque art,
the Trinitary concept. Beneath the feet of the enthroned Christ on the
upper register, in the centre of the outside arch moulding of the portal,
the Lamb is shown carrying the cross in a disc, adored by two angels;
lower down, in the intrados of the arch of the door, still in the axis,
the image of Christ in a medallion is accompanied by incense-bearing angels.
This correspondence in verticality, which has already been noted in the
choir mosaic of San Vitale at Ravenna, recurs in the majority of Romanesque
facades.

Let us pause now to examine one of the reliefs on the lower register of
the facade which represents a horseman armed with lance and shield, for
it recalls the large number of Romanesque horsemen from the west of France,
Italy, Spain and elsewhere, even from the north (Ham-en-Artois), which
generally occupy a prominent position on the church facade, sometimes
trampling a beaten enemy beneath the horse's feet and accompanied by a
female figure. In some cases, these horsemen have been identitied, often
wrongly, with St James or, more plausibly, with Constantine and Helen,
but a seigniorial interpretation, possibly even connected with the donors,
is more fitting in many cases. The local historical and political circumstances
in which it was decided to erect such facades often elude us. The monastery
of Ripoll became the pantheon of the Catalan dynasty from the time the
facade was put in place. The style of its sculptures, moreover, has much
in common with that of the sarcophagus reliefs of the Count of Barcelona,
Raymond Berenguer III (d. 1131), preserved in the church. Neither facade
nor sarcophagus were executed until some years after the count's death,
when his son Raymond Berenguer IV had completed the reconquest of Tarragona
and southern Catalonia from Islam.

The iconographic conception of a facade
may adopt the formula of a sculptured crowning in the form of a frieze
of standing figures (apostolado) as at Sanguesa in Navarre and other Spanish
churches, accompanying the Divine Majesty and the Tetramorph (Carrion
de los Conces, Moarbes) or again quite simply, as at Saint-Gabriel in
Provence, taking advantage solely of the architectural motif of the round
window to associate with it the four evangelist symbols.

The overflowing of images on to the facade implies the integration of
the portal iconography with the facade, as at Saint-Gilles-du-Gard. In
an architectural design modelled on the Roman triumphal arch, the facade
of Saint-Gilles is articulated into three portals which incorporate tympana,
archivolts, lintels and splays in an interplay of columns and sculptures.
Two antique structures are superposed: the facade ornamented by pilasters
with figures and the columned portico surmounted by an entablature. Can
we even imagine the impact that such an ensemble and its iconography,
framed by the tympana of the Epiphany and the Crucifixion must have had
before the end of the 12th century? It implies the adoption of everything
that Provence could ofter by way of antique monuments in the service of
the triumph of Christianity.

The Portals

Among the different regional groups of Romanesque portal, the group in
the west of France is very characteristic during the 12th century by its
architectural, iconographical and stylistic coherence. The facade generally
exhibits a vertical division into three zones separated by buttress columns
and is closed at the extremities by clusters of columns surmounted by
a lantern topped by a pyramid. In the centre, the facade proper is crowned
by a gable and pierced by bays on the ground floor and the upper storey.
The articulation of the wall by columns and niches is common to the majority
of facades in Poitou and Saintonge: Parthenay-le-Vieux, Aulnay-de-Saintonge,
Saint-Hilaire at Melle, Notre-Dame-la-Grande at Poitiers and the Abbaye
des Dames at Saintes, to name only a few. The tympanum is still absent
from the portals which are characterized by the multiplication of arch
mouldings sculptured with figural elements finely carved in a soft limestone
which permits exceptional ornamental subtleties. Stone
sculpture extends to the facade as a whole, to the niches, capitals
and archivolts, but, in the form of work in the round or simple sculptured
slabs, it also stands within niches, on the wall and the gable. Generally
the portal is set in the thickness of the wall, while the latter is given
an elegant rhythm and softened by niches and sometimes even by a thinning
down of the upper part. At Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes (Deux-Sevres), the facade
has an enormous central window and the portal pierced in a fore-part is
unusually deep. In all these monuments, the sculptured capitals and arch
mouldings set off the portal and the other architectural elements of the
facade, making them seem like chisel work carved in stone.

There are close connections between the
formal structure, iconography and style of the facades of all these churches,
which form a homogeneous regional group with some differences of course,
mainly reflected in the stylistic handling. Even if an outside hand appears
here and there, the local and regional tradition is attested by monuments
of secondary importance which vouch for the existence of sculptors' workshops
specializing in the large-scale production of these repetitive arch mouldings,
pre-carved in series depending on the size of the portal for which they
were intended. The skill of this regional school brought it considerable
success during the Romanesque Middle Ages, as proved by the diffusion
of some of its basic plastic concepts (Sicily). Small Romanesque portals
with decorated gables are found as far as the Gironde, following the model
of prestigious buildings such as those of Poitiers, Angouleme and Perigueux.
The actual form of the portal with arch mouldings extended over a wide
area towards Brittany for example (Dinan) and especially southwards (Morlaas)
and even to Spain where it appears from the early second half of the twelfth
century at Santa Maria de Uncastillo (Aragon). Then it recurs in other
edifices: witness the magnificent north portal of the collegiate church
of Santa Maria de Toro (Zamora). The latter shows the twenty-four Elders
of the Apocalypse arranged radially on either side of Christ flanked by
St John and the Virgin on the outer arch moulding; the intermediate one
is adorned with plant motifs, the lower one with censer-bearing angels
on either side of Christ, and these angels reappear inside the lobes of
the portal.

The iconographic program of facades often includes at the top a representation
of the Cross or Christ as at Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes, and statues distributed
freely over the facade or set in niches which represent saints and other
figures standing or on horseback, including the famous horseman mentioned
earlier and episodes from the Old and New Testaments. A wealth of imagery
appears on the modillions (minstrels, musicians, sculptors at work) and
on the archivolts of portals whose arch mouldings are invaded by familiar
and picturesque scenes. Among the latter, personifications of the months
are very popular, decorating the entrance of both modest and imposing
churches. They picture men and women carrying out the work appropriate
to each month of the year. This theme is common in the Romanesque period,
whether as a linear arrangement with the personifieations of the months
juxtaposed on either side of the portal or as in the buildings of the
west, set out on the arch mouldings around the portal. Accompanied by
the signs of the zodiac, these images fit into the cosmic figurations
of the world, the cycle of time, the rhythm of the seasons and everyday
activities.

The development of the calendar on the portals with arch mouldings of
the west of France is quite remarkable and systematic. Sometimes the battle
of the Virtues and Vices is associated with the calendar; so are the Wise
and foolish Virgins (Aulnay, Civray) or other themes like the Elders of
the Apocalypse (Saint-Jouin). In January, the peasant is resting (Civray)
or Janus may illustrate the beginning of the year (Saint-Jouin). In February,
the peasant warms himself by the fire. Then the year continues, with various
agricultural labours and images illustrating the start of a season, as
at Civray where the month of April is personified by a young man standing
between two trees; in July we find the harvest, in August threshing, in
September picking or treading the grapes. Finally the year ends with the
month of December when the peasant is usually sitting at table, in the
shelter of home. The lime-stone used by the sculptors has suffered from
weathering and many facade carvings are almost illegible today. But the
general sequence of themes is easy to discern; whereas at Aulnay each
month is carved on an arch-stone flanked by the corresponding sign of
the zodiac, more frequently each of these elements occupies one arch-stone
or even two, as at Cognac, Argenton, Fenioux and Civray. Sometimes inscriptions
throw light on the theme.

In the Middle Ages, the representations of the months referring to the
activities peculiar to each region are often accompanied by the seasons,
the Rivers of Paradise and other features which have to do with the interpretation
of time and the cycle of annual life. These images are presided over by
the figuration of the year. The months surround the year just as the apostles
or the Elders of the Apocalypse surround Christ in Majesty. On the sculpted
facades of religious buildings, the representations of the months are
often placed around the portal; the personification of the year does not
occur here because it is implicitly replaced by the image of Christ enthroned
in Majesty portrayed elsewhere. Thus the geographical and cosmological
order of the world is displayed at the church entrance by way of the cycle
of the seasons and the months, and refers directly or indirectly to Him
who governs the order of things, the world and the creation.

The Historiated
Cloister

The cloister is a porticoed court on a square or trapezoidal plan situated
at the heart of the clerical community; around it stand the buildings
of everyday monastic life (chapter, cathedral, collegiate church or monastery
proper). The cloister acts as a service gallery, a covered walk, a place
of passage and meditation. Typologically, the Romanesque cloister derives
from the atrium of the Roman house and the late antique basilica by its
form and its organizing purpose. The atrium of the basilica of San Lorenzo
at Milan is of quite special interest for the origin of the medieval cloister,
for it possessed a series of small side rooms to which access was had
by means of two staircases located in two lateral avant-corps. The atrium
of the medieval cathedral at Salerno has a series of small loges behind
which are the rooms where the canons lived. In a wider sense, the word
cloister was often applied to the monastery as a whole in the Middle Ages.

The cloister stood at the heart of monastic life from a very early period.
During the 11th century, it generally had no sculptures. Of irregular
plan or having four equal galleries often with semicircular barrel vaulting,
its cloister walks in the 11thcentury opened on to the court by arcades
supported by massive masonry pillars following the Carolingian model.
It was not until the 12th century that the cloister was invaded by a wealth
of sculpture covering columns and pillars. Since the 19th century the
quality of these works and the ease with which they could be dismantled
have attracted the covetousness of collectors and antique dealers. One
of the most astonishing products of this collecting zeal is The Cloisters
in New York. It originated with the collection formed by the sculptor
George Grey Barnard who lived in France before 1914 and bought many pieces
from the cloisters of Saint-Guilhelm-le-Desert, Bonnefont and Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa,
among others, which he wished to use as models for his American students
at the Beaux-Arts. Purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1925.
the Barnard Collection has become a museum of medieval art whose architectural
conception is that of a monastery with several cloisters. The history
of medieval cloisters is indeed eventful, especially in France after the
Revolution, or even before it, as was the case with the cloister of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux
at Chilons-sur-Marne which has now been re¬stored by archeologists.
The history of the cloisters of Saint-Etienne and La Daurade at Toulouse
is exemplary in this connection. Their dispersion was soon followed by
regret and the desire to restore them. Hence the decision to create a
historical and didactic museum headed by an erudite scholar who, along
with others. had much to do with the image we now have of the Middle Ages:
Alexandre du Mege. As early as 1817, du Mege began setting up the sculptures
on a continuous plinth so that they should serve as "objects of study
for those who cherish the knowledge of Antiquity." He reconstructed
the door of the chapter house of La Daurade, the precursor of further
reconstructions of celebrated cloisters, closer to us and based on other
criteria, such as that undertaken by the Historical Monuments Service
at Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa.

The oldest historiated Romanesque cloister
was built shortly before 1100 in the abbey of Moissac. Its model may have
been the cloister commissioned by Odilo at Cluny before 1048. A daughter
house of the abbey of Cluny from 1047-1048, Moissac flourished to an extraordinary
degree, its prosperity leading to the construction of a new abbey church
consecrated in 1063. This was a building with nave and narrow side aisles,
and an ambulatory revealed by excavations, although it has not been possible
to determine whether it already had sculptured capitals. The cloister
was built nearer the end of the century, as indicated by an inscription
engraved on the central pillar of the west gallery: "In the year
of the incarnation of the Prince Eternal 1100, this cloister was finished
in the days of the Lord Abbot Ansquitil. Amen." The porticoed cloister
walks had alternating single and twin marble colonnettes adorned with
rich capitals carved with geometric and plant motifs, historiated scenes
and animals. The style of these works also betrays their date, because
certain abaci decorated with portrait busts
of figures are very close to the Toulouse works of Bernard Gilduin. The
essential contribution of the Moissac cloister was to give the sculptured
pillars a privileged place in the overall disposition. Eight apostles
occupy the corner pillars. which tallies with their symbolism as pillars
of the universal Church. A ninth, Simon, stands today on the central pillar
of the west cloister walk. Abbot Ansquitil took the decision to have the
image of his predecessor, Durand, sculpted on the central pillar of the
east cloister walk, which has something to tell us about the high place
the monastic order sought to occupy in the contemporary Church. Stylistically,
these figures, like those of the Saint-Sernin reliefs at Toulouse, seem
to be particularly inspired by ivories and goldsmith's works. Iconographically,
the sculpture of the forty-one historiated capitals centres on the Gospel
story, thc Old Testament, apocalyptic and eschatological scenes, the martyrdoms
of Peter and Paul. Stephen, Saturninus, Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius,
as well as the miracles of St Benedict and St Martin.

Whereas at Moissac the scenes are isolated
on each capital, a step forward was taken at La Daurade in Toulouse where
we find a continuous story arranged on a group of capitals, just as illuminated
manuscripts continued an illustrated narration over several pages.
This is the formula adopted during the 12th century in a certain number
of cloister walks: Gerona, Sant Cugat del Valles, Tarragona. The oldest
series of reliefs in the Silos cloister forms an Easter cycle continuing
down to Whitsuntide; the pillar with doubting St Thomas naturally finds
a place there. The north walk of the Saint-Trophime cloister at Arles,
dating to about 1180, is a model of iconographic cohesion; it incorporates
both the statue figures and the scenes on bas-reliefs and capitals, the
latter so arranged as to be seen solely from the covered walk. The program,
strictly focused on the glory of Christ, with allusions to the Old Testament,
also includes the saints venerated at Arles, Trophimus and Stephen.

During the Middle Ages, the decoration of the Romanesque cloister with
figure carvings gave rise to lively religious discussions which in part
sum up the notion we have formed of monastic ideals. While the Moissac
cloister seems to havc been completed at the very end of the 11th century,
it was certainly the outcome of earlier experiments and tensions that
we know little about. Hence the eloquent anecdote about the abbey of Saint-Florent
near Saumur, whose cloister Abbot Roger of Blois (985-1011) had already
undertaken to decorate with polychrome stone sculptures accompanied by
inscriptions: "claustralis fabrica mira lapidum sculptura cum versuum
indiciis ac picturarum splendoribus est polita." But under Frederick,
an abbot of the first half of the 11th century (1022-1056), discussion
turned into action when he ordered the limbs and heads of these cloister
carvings to be smashed with a hammer. True, it is difficult to equate
this source with what we know of the date of the sculpture's appearance
in the cloisters, and the phrase "claustralis fabrica" is ambiguous;
but it at least allows us to evoke the important role that painting must
have played in the decoration of the early cloisters. Moreover, this incident
seems to be a premonitory sign of the vigour with which St Bernard (c.1124),
and with him the Cistercian Order in general, expressed his opposition
to the richly ornamented Cluniac cloister: "What are these ridiculous
monsters, this deformed beauty and this beautiful deformity doing in the
cloisters beneath the eyes of the brothers intent on their reading? What
are these disgusting monkeys doing? These ferocious lions; These monstrous
centaurs?"

In accordance with the rule, the Cistercian
cloisters, especially the older ones (Le Thoronet), had no decoration
at all and this was of course the case with the Carthusians, the Premonstratensians
and the Grandmontians. But the moment has come to ask if there is an iconography
peculiar to the Romanesque cloister. We should note that the images and
their locations are extremely varied. They may be purely ornamental or
fantastic or taken from Bestiaries or from everyday life, like a gaze
turned on the outside world. They may be connected with the facade decoration
or objects in the treasury. They may be concentrated in one part of the
cloister or on a single capital, or unfold through a whole cloister walk
in a complete cycle. Sometimes they assume the form of pillar reliefs
or column statues or extend as paintings along the walls or ceilings of
the walk; and lastly they sometimes adorn the upper walk (Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert).
Apart from tbe presence of an inscription or the effigy of the founding
abbot (Cuxa, Ripoll), a reference to the rule (column-statue of St Benedict
in Saint-Pere of Chartres, wall painting of St Augustine in Saint-Sernin
of Toulouse capital of St Ursus at Aosta) and some illustrations alluding
to the common life or its models (Entry into Jerusalem, Washing of the
Feet, Last Supper), we have to admit that the cloister imagery is extremely
varied, open and receptive to the outside world. The incoherence of some
cloisters is due to the fact that the walks were often built successfully
or subject to interruptions that might last more than a century (Elne,
Ripoll). The type of homogeneous cloister like Monreale in Sicily, with
its colonnette shafts carved or adorned with mosaics, is the exception
rather than the rule. The monotony of the marble
sculpture in some cloisters has been explained by the "mass production"
practised by specialized marble masons (Subiaco, Cuxa); the richness and
fantasy of others by the many different functions of the cloister and
by the possibility that the walks were open to the faithful on certain
days and at certain hours, especially in urban settings. But this explanation
is inadequate, for the richly decorated upper cloister walk of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert
was only accessible to the monks from the gallery of the abbey church
or their own dormitory and had no direct communication with the lower
walk.

The iconography of the cloister is not limited to carved capitals or wall
paintings. The doors giving access to the church or the monastic buildings
are often adorned with archivolts, capitals and even a sculpted tympanum.
The tombs of benefactors or members of the community helped to embellish
the cloister walks, often on a monumental scale. Of all the monastic halls
surrounding the cloister (refectory, dormitory, etc.), the chapter house
is the most decorated (wall paintings at Brauweiler and Sigena). The splay
statues of the chapter house of Saint-Etienne at Toulouse brilliantly
illustrate an intermediate formula between the bas-relief (Saint-Caprais
at Agen) and the column figure (Saint Georges de Boscherville); they portray
the apostles, models of the communal life. The chapter house entrance
at Saint Georges de Boscherville in Normandy (about 1175) decorated with
column statues and capitals illustrates the passage from the Rule of St
Benedict devoted to the abbot's duties with depictions of life, death
and monastic discipline: this, together with other examples, proves that
sometimes an iconography peculiar to the cloister actually did exist during
the 12th century. The chapter house is not always in the same location.
In England it is often large and spacious and to give it height it is
not designed to open directly into the cloister but into an access-giving
corridor behind it. Worcester is the oldest known example. In the Gothic
period it assumes an octagonal shape (York) or is organized in relation
to a central column (Westminster). In Lower Normandy, chapter houses are
built along an axis parallel to that of the church and project from the
wall of the dormitory. Three are built directly against the church, fourteen
are separated from it by the sacristy, three by the sacristy and a staircase,
and one (Longues) is built over the refectory. The Cistercian chapter
house was a rectangle divided into aisles by pillars.

The cloister basin or fountain, which bore
a striking resemblance to baptismal fonts, stood in the middle of the
cloister garth. Sometimes it was housed in a small building and placed
in the middle of the cloister walk opposite the church or at the corner
of two walks. It served for the monks ablutions and took the form of an
outer basin fed with water from a raised central dispenser (Conques, Monreale,
Poblet). These fountains are decorated with masks (Lagrasse) or heads
of a more learned iconography (Saint-Denis), with colonnettes and capitals
(Cuxa), and may be surmounted by a prestigious crowning feature such as
the later horseman on the bronze fountain of Saint-Oertin at Saint-Omer.
The Gothic cloister, with its delicate colonnettes and foliage capitals.
puts the emphasis on a new aesthetic. Nevertheless, the 12th-century Gothic
cloisters in the north, contemporary with Romanesque cloisters in the
south of France, are still richly sculptured. Column-statues smaller than
those of the portal splays adorned the cloister of Saint-Denis around
the middle of the 12th century: they are known from the drawings of Montfaucon.
The cloister of the collegiate church of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux at Chalons-sur-Marne,
possessed some fifty column statues and an equal number of historiated
capitals justifying the admiration in which 12th-century monastic commentators
held this cloister, sometimes interpreted as an imago mundi and compared
to Paradise and the Heavenly Jerusalem by Honorius of Autun and Hugh of
Fouilloy. The recent reconstruction of an apocalyptic program with the
Four Horsemen and the Elders comprising a zodiacal group in the dispersed
cloister of Saint-Avit-Senier in Perigord reinforces the links between
the iconography of cloisters and facades (possibly about the second quarter
of the 12th century) and confirms the idea of the cloister as prefiguring
the advent of the heavenly city.

REFERENCES
We gratefully acknowledge the use of material from the seminal work on
early European Sculpture, namely Sculpture: From Antiquity to the Middle
Ages, Edited by G. Duby and J-L Daval (1989-91) (published by Taschen
GmbH), a book we strongly recommend for any serious students of Romanesque
sculpture and architecture.